Elbert Hubbard, 1856 - 1915

1907

Born: 19 June 1856, Bloomington, Illinois
Died: 7 May 1915, Eight miles (15 km) off the Old Head of Kinsale, Ireland

After growing up in a hard-shell Baptist home at Hudson, Illinois, his first business venture was selling products from the Larkin Soap Company. He was an innovative salesman and moved to Rochester, New York, to work at headquarters, becoming a partner. At age 35, in 1892, he sold his stock and enrolled at Harvard. When told there that he couldn't write he quit and wrote three novels. Inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement of William Morris, he established Roycroft, a community at East Aurora, New York. This started with his own private press, known for eccentric but handsome and well bound books on hand-made paper, and in 1895 brought others to the community to make furniture, ironwork, stained-glass windows, lamps, and jewelry. Hubbard's second wife, Alice, was a noted suffragist and the Roycroft community became a site for meetings and conventions of freethinkers, reformers, and suffragists. Hubbard was a popular lecturer and published his home-spun philosophy in two magazines. He wrote a series of 14 volumes of profiles of prominent people, Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great. As World War I approached, he set out as a completely-unauthorized ambassador to meet with Kaiser Wilhelm to avert war. He and Alice sailed for Europe on RMS Lusitania. Off the Irish coast, en route Liverpool, Unterseeboot 20 fired a torpedo into her bow and she went down in eighteen minutes.

A little more patience, a little more charity for all, a little more devotion, a little more love; with less bowing down to the past, and a silent ignoring of pretended authority; brave looking forward to the future with more faith in our fellows, and the race will be ripe for a great burst of light and life. permalink

Elbert Hubbard

A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success. There is no failure except in no longer trying. There is no defeat except from within, no really insurmountable barrier save our own inherent weakness of purpose. permalink

Elbert Hubbard

A man is as good as he has to be, and a woman as bad as she dares. permalink

Elbert Hubbard

A man is not paid for having a head and hands, but for using them. permalink

Elbert Hubbard

A man who marries a woman to educate her falls victim to the same fallacy as the woman who marries a man to reform him. permalink

Elbert Hubbard

The Note Book of Elbert Hubbard (1927)

A pessimist is a man who has been compelled to live with an optimist. permalink

Elbert Hubbard

The Note Book of Elbert Hubbard (1927)

A retentive memory may be a good thing, but the ability to forget is the true token of greatness. permalink

Elbert Hubbard

The Note Book of Elbert Hubbard (1927)

A woman will doubt everything you say except it be compliments to herself. permalink

Elbert Hubbard

Academic education is the act of memorizing things read in books, and things told by college professors who got their education mostly by memorizing things read in books. permalink

Anyone who idolizes you is going to hate you when he discovers that you are fallible. He never forgives. He has deceived himself, and he blames you for it. permalink

Elbert Hubbard

An American Bible (1918)

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